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chair. “I suggest you watch the sunset from the terrace outside your room. I’ll have Elena send up some of her special tea to help you relax.”
    She’d be more relaxed as soon as she got away from all his charisma. “What kind of tea?”
    “I’m not certain,” he said as he strolled toward her and stopped only a foot or so away. “I’ve never tried it. I do know it is formulated to help a person sleep.”
    She’d probably have no trouble sleeping the moment her head hit the pillow. “Thank you, and I’ll see you in the morning.”
    “You’re welcome.” He reached out and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “If the tea doesn’t help you sleep, my room is next door to yours. Feel free to wake me.”
    “What for?” As if she really had to ask.
    “Whatever you need to help you relax.”
    She suddenly engaged in one heck of a naked-body fantasy that made her want to run for cover. “I assure you I won’t need anything to help me relax.”
    “Let me know if you change your mind.”
    “I won’t be changing my mind.” She turned toward the door then faced him again when something dawned on her. “By the way, if all this innuendo is some ploy to scare me off, save your breath. I’ve been propositioned by the best.” And the worst of the worst.
    He looked almost crestfallen. “I’m wounded you would think I would resort to such underhanded tactics.”
    Maybe she had overreacted a tad. Some men just happened to be blessed with the flirtation gene. “My apologies if I’m wrong about your motives.”
    “Actually, you are correct,” he said. “That was my original plan. But you have bested me, so I promise to behave myself from this point forward.”
    She had a hard time believing that. “Well, in case you should get any more bright ideas, just know it will take more than a few well-rehearsed, suggestive lines to send me packing. I’ve spent many years studying human nature, and I know what you’re all about.”
    He braced a hand on the doorframe above her head. “Enlighten me, Madison.”
    The sound of her name rolling softly out of his mouth, his close proximity, was not helping her concentration. “You use your charm to discourage perceived threats to your control, and to encourage the results you wish to achieve, namely driving people away. But beneath all that sexy macho bravado, I believe you’re a man with a great deal of conviction when it comes to his country’s future. Am I correct?”
    “Perhaps you are only projecting your need for control on me. I believe at times giving up control to another is preferable. Have you never been tempted to throw out logic and act on pure instinct?”
    Her instincts told her he wasn’t referring to a professional relationship. “Not when it comes to mixing business with pleasure, if that’s what you’re asking. Don’t forget we’re trying to repair your reputation, not enhance it.”
    He had the nerve to show his pearly whites to supreme advantage. “Sometimes the pleasure is worth the risk.”
    “I thought you promised to behave.”
    He straightened and attempted to look contrite. “My apologies. I was momentarily struck senseless by your analysis.”
    Before she was momentarily struck stupid and kissed that smug, sexy smile off his face, Madison made a hasty exit.
    She hadn’t lied when she’d admitted she’d been propositioned before. She had lied when she’d claimed she hadn’t been tempted to cross professional lines, because she had—the moment she’d reunited with Zain Mehdi.

Three
    P erception is everything…
    Zain had to agree with Madison on that point. He’d always been perceived as a man with a strong affinity for attractive women, a fact he could not deny. Yet that standing had provided the means to carry out his covert activities over the past seven years, and earned him the Phantom Sheikh title. His absence had always been blamed on a lover, and most of the time that had been far from the truth. Most of the time.